Do ghosts exist?Have you ever seen a ghost?

On almost a daily basis, we get asked if ghosts exist.The answer is strictly opinion, but my opinion is, Yes.Why only my opinion?Because I cannot beyond my own experiences and findings give a definitive answer that all would agree with.I say yes, because I have seen many things that I can not explain.I've seen several apparitions, shadows and witnessed phenomenon that defied the laws of physics.

Even though my paranormal experience resume is extensive, it is not enough to convince the public at large that ghosts exist.Only when we can figure out a way to consistently reproduce paranormal activity in a controlled laboratory environment will the skeptics lend credibility to this field of science.So, since I don't have a lab story to tell, I will share a few of my personal ghostly experiences.

1) The Ghostly Grandmother - My first encounter with an apparition occurred when I was 10. I was staying with a childhood friend in a house built by his great-grandfather in 1870.Since the house was built, his family had owned and each generation leading up to his father had taken their turn living in the house.During this specific night I was sleeping over after attending an event with my friend and his father.We were the only people in the house that night.In middle of the night, I woke to use the bathroom.After going to the bathroom, I stood at the sink to wash my hands and saw a person walk up behind me.Looking into the mirror I saw the reflection of an older woman in a long white nightgown.She had a light grey, almost white colored hair.She walked into my field of view and we made eye contact through the mirror.She looked almost as startled as I felt.I turned around truly thinking that she was behind me.She wasn't there; I then realized that the bathroom door was still closed.At this point, I began to shout.(I was 10)I wasn't afraid of what I witnessed, but confused.My friend and his father both ran to the bathroom to see why I was shouting.I explained the scenario and my friend’s father, who suggested we all return to our rooms and go back to sleep.The next day and out of curiosity, my friend’s father questioned me about my experience.He decided to show me a photo album with pictures.I immediately picked out pictures of his grandmother, who had lived and died in that house, from the pictures.This is the person that I saw in the mirror and this was the first time I had seen pictures as they didn't have any of her displayed through the house.My friend's father also admitted to me that he had his own experiences seeing her in the house, but never told his son because he didn’t want to scare him.This specific experience really increased my curiosity in the paranormal.From this specific point, I knew I wanted to learn more.

2) Disappearing Damsel - An interesting paranormal encounter occurred on the first night I had moved into my new house in 2006.A friend and I were sleeping over after moving furniture on the very first night after I closed on the house.At approximately 2:30am the doorbell rang and I jumped up to answer the door.For my own security, I cracked the door open with the chain and spoke with an attractive young brunette who explained that her car had a flat tire in front of my house and she needed help.She asked if I could help or if she could use my phone, but I explained that I didn't have a home phone installed.I offered to come outside and install her spare tire.I pulled back the curtain, on the window next to the door, and I saw an older model vehicle with its emergency flashers blinking. The vehicle had a flat rear driver-side tire and was sitting in my driveway.Being a good samaritan, I told the girl I would slip on shoes and come outside.In 5 seconds, I turned around picked up my shoes and pulled the door chain off.I opened the door and to my amazement, there was no woman, no car, nothing...When I had first looked at the car, it was all the way in my driveway, pulled in facing forward.In the time frame that it took for me to pick up my shoes and open the door fully I can't see how she could have disappeared and with the car.I called for my friend who was sleeping on an air mattress in my guest bedroom and he jumped up to help me search for her outside.I immediately ran to the street looking in both directions for tail lights or a car on the side of the road.I live in the middle of a long straight away and can see almost a mile in both directions.There was no car or lights to be seen.We searched for over an hour looking up and down the highway, contemplating how she could have peeled off without being heard and with a flat tire.My friend had heard the woman and I both talking.The doorbell woke him up.This was not my imagination.Both tired and needing sleep, we tossed this one up as teens playing a prank, but both knew that there had to be more to it.It was too unique of a situation to ignore.I never found anything conclusive to explain this experience, but often think about it.Since that first night in my house, I have had the doorbell ring mysteriously a few other times.In each instance, no one would be in sight and my yard is too big and open to hide.The doorbell has even rang with me standing within a foot of the door and then opening it within 1 second to find no one there.And yes, I've checked the wiring...

3) 1 Shadow, 2 Shadow, How many ghosts do you see? -One lazy Sunday afternoon while watching NASCAR, my wife and I had an experience with witnessing shadows of people move across an interior wall in our house.We both witnessed this event at the same time, watching five distinct and complete shadows of people go across the wall near the doorway to my kitchen.You could make out the shape and size of each individual as they walked in a single file line and their shadow passed against the wall.Being a skeptical mind, I figured there must be a reasonable explanation for how the shadows could have appeared.I immediately went outside looking for people who could be walking through my yard. I live out in the country and not many people walk by my home.My wife and I spent over 2 hours attempting multiple recreations of that event and could not cast a shadow on that wall without being inside my home.The wall is an interior wall, actually a corner near the entry door to my kitchen from my family room and doesn't receive any light, reflection or shadow from the outside.As my wife and I were the only ones home and both seated, there was no way for us to cast this shadow.I had to stand near the wall and have my wife shine a flashlight to create a shadow similar to what we witnessed.This is a personal experience shared with my wife, and I have no proof other than my account.I feel that it was a paranormal experience, due to the fact we could not recreate or disprove what we witnessed.

4) Taking out the garbage - One Friday evening after a long work week, I was relaxing in my recliner and witnessed the lid on my trash can, levitate.This trash can sits in a corner of my kitchen and is a 55 gallon can with a 25" diameter plastic lid.The can sits 44 inches tall.I witnessed the lid to this trash can completely lift up, hovering approximately 10 inches off the top of the can.I could see a complete and clear gap between the can and the lid.It looked as if someone lifted the lid straight up.The lid hovered over the can for 3 seconds and then slowly and gently set back down.This occurred twice in the same manner within about 20 seconds of each event.Nearly a minute later, a third event occurred.This time when the lid was lifted, I spoke and asked for the ghost to stop playing with my trash can lid and the lid slammed to the floor and slid to the door as if someone has spiked it like a football.I was home alone at the time and proceeded into my kitchen to investigate the cause of this event.We did have cats, but these animals were confined to a different part of the house at the time and were not in the kitchen.I made an accounting for them.The trash can was empty and did not have any trash or objects in the can that would have pushed up or caused anything (like mice) to get in the can.An animal could not have lifted the lid as high as I witnessed and I also had a full view of the can and lid and never saw an animal or anything that could explain why the trash can lid was hovering over the can.This is another personal experience and an interesting one for me as an investigator.I wished that I had video footage of this event as I was left speechless and impressed by the activity that I witnessed.

5) Paranormal Investigator from beyond - On a recent paranormal investigation, I had an interesting experience with a shadow figure.During the investigation, I went to check on a pair of our investigators who were also experiencing activity in this client's home.During their investigation session, the bedroom light turned itself on from the light switch.I went into the home in effort to assist with investigating that event.I spent some time working with the switch and checking for a short or reasonable explanation for the light coming on.I turned the room light off to find a night light was on in an adjoining bathroom and walked in there to unplug the night light.I had an investigator in the room with me when I stepped into the bathroom.That investigator walked out of the bedroom into the hallway to investigate a noise he heard.I walked out of the bathroom and began talking to a figure standing at the bathroom doorway entrance that matched the same build and appearance as the investigator that I was with.To my surprise, that investigator walked back in the room and came to a stop in the exact spot that I thought he was already standing talking to the shadow.When he approached, the shadow person disappeared. Luckily, we have this entire exchange on video footage from our DVR Infrared cameras.At first glance, you can see me standing and talking to nothing...However, we haven't finished review of this evidence and could in fact turn up something paranormal in our video footage.We also haven't finished reviewing what happened with the light switch and the room light coming on, but it is also part of our video review and we do have that event captured on camera.

There are many other personal experiences that we've had investigating and some of which are on camera.As we continue to complete our evidence review and with client permission will publish what evidence we can to our website.